Empowering Future Educators: The First Teachers 4.0 Digital Training Session at UniPA
During the autumn semester (October–December 2024), the University of Palermo (UniPA) hosted the first pre-service teacher training session of the Teachers 4.0 Digital project. The session was designed and delivered by Gianna Cappello, Full Professor of Sociology of Education and Digital Media at the Department of Psychology, Educational Science and Human Movement. She manages the project for UniPA, along with Daniela Sortino and Paola Macaluso, both members of the UniPA project team.
The course focused on the Teachers 4.0 Digital Curriculum on Digital Media Literacy and Tackling Disinformation, coordinated by UniPA and implemented in collaboration with European partner universities and institutions. The curriculum aims to equip teachers with methodologies and tools to enhance students’ competencies in identifying and addressing disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation, as well as understanding echo chambers and conspiracy theories. Additionally, it provides strategies for assessing and evaluating digital media competencies in schools.
The Teachers 4.0 Digital Curriculum was offered as study material, with specific insights and activities from Modules 2, 3, 5, and 6. All self-study resources were shared with students, along with guidelines for group projects, which were presented and discussed during the final course examinations. Some of the most outstanding projects developed by Italian students featured a wealth of original materials for future classroom lesson plans and activities. These included:
• Echo Chambers and Conspiracy Theories
• Appearances Can Be Deceiving: Discovering Cheap Fakes and Deep Fakes
• Navigating with Awareness: From Disinformation to Digital Responsibility
• The Conspiracy Factory on the Web: Beware of Echo Chambers!
• Behind the Scoop: Truth and Invention
A total of 178 UniPA students participated in the course, which was part of the Teachers 4.0 Digital Project.